Two very different pictures of Illinois emerged as Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and his Republican challenger, Bruce Rauner, each addressed a business group in downtown Springfield Wednesday.

“Our state has definitely turned the corner — we've made a comeback,” Quinn told the “2014 Business Day” luncheon group at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel. The event was co-hosted by the Illinois Manufacturers' Association and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

About an hour later, it was Rauner's turn.

“We've got failure in Springfield government that is wrecking the future of our home … and I won't stand for it,” he said.

Efforts heralded

Quinn spoke of the ethical and financial problems that he inherited when he took over for impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five years ago.

“I understand that you don't always agree with me, but we have agreed on a number of things along the way,” Quinn told the business leaders.

He noted that after the state went a decade without an infrastructure building plan, it only took him 10 weeks in office to get legislative approval for a $31 billion plan. He noted that he's hoping to enact another capital plan soon.

He also said he's been able to get reforms passed in education, “streamlined our environmental regulations” and took “important steps” in reforming worker's compensation.

“Don't let anybody tell you differently,” Quinn said about the program that compensates workers for injuries.

And he said bond-rating agencies have looked favorably on what he called the “most important reform,” rolling back future pension costs. He said that reform passed despite people “who wanted to sabotage that effort.”

“You're going to hear from those people in an hour or so,” Quinn said, referring to Rauner, who opposed the plan.

Quinn also reiterated his case to extend what was passed in 2011 as a temporary 67 percent increase in the state's income tax, from 3 percent of income to 5 percent. Under that law, the tax is supposed to go down to 3.75 percent Jan. 1, but Quinn argues that state services would be devastated, including “savage cuts” to education.

Rauner was not yet there, but Quinn quipped that Rauner's still-being-developed budget plan comes down to three words: “Mum's the word.”

Plan coming ‘soon'

After his speech, Rauner told reporters that his fiscal plan for the state is coming soon.

“You know, we became the nominee not too long ago, and we're working through a lot of homework and a lot of detail — but it won't be too long,” Rauner said. Asked if it will be by the end of May, when the legislature is scheduled to end its business, Rauner said, “It will be soon.”

Page 2 of 2 - During his speech, Rauner said success of people in business is key to success of the state.

“If you guys are taken for granted, if you guys are looked at as a piggy bank to be broken into whenever money's needed, if you guys are regarded as selfish folks who don't look out for your employees, and don't look out for your customers but are just out to take advantage and make money ... and you're really the enemy of progressive thought, you know what happens?” Rauner asked. “Loss of our prosperity. Loss of our future.”

Rauner added that he has friends in manufacturing, retail and health care who are leaving the state and encouraging him to join them.

“That makes me mad,” he said. “This is my home.”

The Winnetka businessman said politicians currently running the state “don't understand that the business of government is to create a business environment that's pro-job creation, number one priority. Nothing else more important than that.”

But he said government today is “creating regulatory barriers, tax burdens and a bureaucracy that's there to throw up roadblocks and barricades.”

‘We're getting abused'

Rauner also told the crowd that the “spin” that he is anti-union or anti-worker is “pure baloney.”

“I'm running to help working families in this state,” he said. “And they're suffering because the special interest groups. … the folks that make their money from government, inside the government, when they're sitting across the table from a politician and saying, ‘I'll take some taxpayer-funded dues and give that to you as campaign cash and give you 10,000 workers for your campaign, paid for by taxpayers. I'll do all that to get you elected. Now, let's negotiate our pensions and our pay scale and our free health care.”

“Hello!” Rauner said. “Hello!”

“What's happening to all the rest of us who aren't in that loop?” he asked. “We're getting abused. And working families are suffering as a result.”

Quinn did not take questions from reporters after his speech.

Greg Baise, president and CEO of the manufacturers' group, said his organization has not yet endorsed in the governor's race, but said, “I think business owners in this state have really gotten to the point that they want to see a change. … I think the business community's perception of this state (is) if we don't make a drastic change of some sort, a lot of my members who can will move, and I hear that lament over and over again.”